Forged by Fire: Margery Kempe’s Account of Postnatal Psychosis

The opening sequence of the autobiography, The Book of Margery Kempe, written in approximately 1439, describes an episode of illness after the birth of a first child, which medical historians have identified as postnatal psychosis. Margery however, interpreted her experience of postnatal psychosis in terms of her own worldview, using a Christian paradigm. She was convinced that her recovery was an example of Grace emanating from her special relationship with God which gave her divine knowledge about how to change her life. This led to Margery living a life of remarkable independence for a woman in medieval patriarchal society, as a pilgrim and mystic challenging structures of both marriage and church. By reading Margery’s autobiography through both modern interpretations of postnatal psychosis and her medieval interpretation of illness as a result of sin and recovery as a result of her relationship with God, this article celebrates Margery’s remarkable achievements as she turned towards living a life in the spirit and demanded her independence. Her story demonstrates how the meaning that the person themselves makes of their life threatening illness can lead to emancipation.